“Development for Apple Watch is right on schedule, and we expect to begin shipping in April,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook told analysts in a recent financial earnings call.

The company’s most eagerly awaited product since the iPad is within touching distance, but can it live up to the hype, and prove that smartwatches are more than just a novelty geekcessory?

Some of those analysts have high hopes, with predictions for Apple Watch sales in 2015 ranging from 10 million to 30 million units. This is despite the fact that the device’s pricing remains mysterious: the cheapest model will cost $349 in the US, but the price of the Sport and Edition versions remains unknown.

In many ways, Apple Watch’s debut resembles past launches by the company, from iPod to iPhone, when it let other companies make the running, learned from their successes and mistakes, then entered the market with its own slick competitor. In late 2014, a poll by Ipsos Mori found that only 1% of Brits owned a smartwatch, which suggested that early efforts from the likes of Pebble, Motorola, Samsung and LG had failed to appeal beyond the earliest of adopters.

Time for Apple to storm in with something better? The company won’t solve all the problems that have made smartwatches a niche. For example, battery life: “We think you’re going to end up charging it daily. Overnight,” said Cook in October. The biggest challenge faced by the Apple Watch, though, is to answer the simple question: what is a smartwatch for? Health-tracking might be a good answer now; contactless payments perhaps in the longer term; and the notion of breaking the cycle of smartphone-checking rudeness has potential.

Smartwatches are clever devices in search of problems to solve: not just a design and engineering challenge, then, but a marketing challenge. Which, given its maker, might be exactly why the Apple Watch stands the best chance yet of taking the smartwatch beyond the early adopters.

Stay healthier

Health and fitness is going to be a major selling point. Its sensors will track your activity – including how much (or little) you stand up – suggest weekly goals and feed data back to your iPhone’s health app.

Zoom and scroll

Apple is very proud of its watch’s digital crown. Rotate it, and the menus will zoom and scroll – it’s a way around the impracticality of using the iOS “pinch” gesture on a screen this small.

Choose your face

Yes, the Apple Watch can tell the time, alongside its whizzier features. It’ll offer a large choice of customisable faces, from traditional analogue designs to digital displays – and even a face that’s a 3D model of the solar system.

Buy with Apple Pay

In the US, the Apple Watch will also use its maker’s new Apple Pay technology, enabling owners to slap their wrists down to pay for goods and services. As Apple Pay launches elsewhere in the world, so overseas watches will be able to use the feature too.

At the flick of an eye …

Expect to hear the word “glance” a lot around Apple Watch this year: the notion that quick eye-flicks towards your wrist will let you leave your iPhone in your pocket more often. That includes notifications of new messages, and the ability to quickly check, flag and/or trash incoming emails.